Kettle Creek battlefield group gets support from state SAR

By KIP BURKE

news editor

The heads of Sons of the American Revolution chapters from all over the state of Georgia voted last weekend to donate $40,000 to the Kettle Creek Battlefield Association to help purchase land around the historically important Revolutionary War battle site in rural Wilkes County.

KCBA members and directors met Saturday in Barnesville with the state SAR Board of Managers to discuss their progress in bringing the Kettle Creek Battlefield Master Plan to fruition, the KCBA’s Thomas Owen said. “The overwhelming majority of the SAR presidents from all over the state voted in favor of awarding $40,000 to the association to help purchase land,” he said. “This gives us the option of possibly purchasing 100 more acres that are part of the master plan. This is the first large and significant expansion of the battlefield site.”

For more than 100 years, the SAR and DAR, along with Wilkes County leaders, have supported the preservation of the pristine battle site, he said. “In 1899, the National Society of the DAR purchased 12.5 acres of land to preserve War Hill, the center of the battlefield,” Owen said. “Then in 1930, the DAR obtained the services of the federal government to install the war memorial obelisk commemorating the 1779 battle. Since 1930, we believe, and certainly since 1960, War Hill Road and New Salem Church Road have been maintained by the county to allow public access to War Hill, according to Wilkes County Commission Chairman Sam Moore.”

In recent years, the Kettle Creek Chapter of the DAR, along with SAR and DAR chapters from surrounding counties, have donated amounts ranging from $1,000 to $5,000. “They realize how absolutely vital it is to preserve this pristine Revolutionary War battle site, and how important it is to maintain public access and increase public visits to the site,” Owen said.

In April, the Wilkes County Board of Commissioners approved the Kettle Creek Battlefield Master Plan developed by Jason Hardin of the Regional Commission. At that meeting, Chairman Sam Moore said, “This was a very important battle and I think this gets the information out there better than it has been before. This was the only [Revolutionary War] battle that was won in Georgia and we are really proud that it was here,” he said.

When it is implemented, the first stages of the plan would add walking trails around War Hill, have picnic tables and restrooms built at the site, and would add signage that explains the course of the 1779 battle and its importance to the American Revolution.